Want an Off-the-Radar Name for Alabama Basketball? Try Kevin Keatts

As Alabama begins its search for a new basketball coach, you'll see a lot of the same names on lists of potential candidates. The hot names in basketball - Brad Stevens, Shaka Smart, Gregg Marshall, Archie Miller - will be everywhere. Then you'll find the coaches that seem more likely for Alabama - Murray State's Steve Prohm, Louisiana Tech's Michael White, Ben Howland - being discussed in most circles.

But I want to add another name to the mix. It's one that could very well replace the Millers and Marshalls as the hot coach in 2-3 years. I'm referring to UNC-Wilmington's Kevin Keatts.

While Keatts has just one year of collegiate head coaching experience, he has a lot else going for him that would make him an attractive candidate for the Crimson Tide.

His Coaching Background

The 41-year-old has spent 12 of his 18 years coaching at Hargrave Military Academy. The first came as an assistant in 1997 and ended with two different stints as head coach (1999-2001, 2003-2011). During that time, he compiled a dominant 263-17 record that included two national championships and three runner-up finishes. His team was among the final four prep teams every year from 2004 to 2010.

That incredible run of success led to Rick Pitino hiring Keatts as an assistant at Louisville in 2011. Under Pitino's mentorship, Keatts quickly became one of the top assistants in the country, helping the Cardinals to back-to-back Final Fours and the national championship in 2013. He eventually rose to associate head coach before leaving the Cardinals staff in 2014.

Keatts received his first collegiate head coaching opportunity from UNC-Wilmington and just finished up a successful opening season. If you're worried at all about his lack of head coaching experience, simply look at what he accomplished in a single year. The Seahawks, picked to finish 9th out of 10 teams in the Colonial Athletic Association, won a share of the regular season conference title and received just its 7th postseason bid in nearly 40 years of basketball. Keatts was named the CAA Coach of the Year for his quick turnaround.

To give you a little more context for how great of a job he did this season, consider that the UNCW hasn't even won more than 13 games in a single season since 2007-08. You're talking about a program that was among the worst in Division I basketball, and he turned them into a regular season conference champion in less than 12 months. While it doesn't guarantee his future success, it does validate his tremendous potential. Pitino's coaching lineage is long, and Keatts looks like he could be next on the list.

Elite Recruiter

Alabama, like every SEC school not named Kentucky, needs a great recruiter leading its program. The Crimson Tide will rarely win a national recruiting battle, so it's essential that the head coach be able to find and keep the talent within the state while using the region to identify players that bigger schools might miss out on.

If there's one thing we know about Keatts, it's that he's great on the recruiting trail. Coaching at Hargrave helped him build relationships with high school coaches around the country. At Louisville, Keatts had a huge hand in bringing in some of the top players on the Cardinals' roster - Montrezl Harrell, Luke Hancock, Chris Jones, Terry Rozier and Anton Gill.

Two summers ago, ESPN college basketball insider Jeff Goodman listed Keatts as the 3rd most respected/feared assistant in the country. If you want some insight into the evaluation process, another ESPN writer followed Keatts last summer and detailed the experience.

The only knock against him is the lack of experience in the SEC and the state of Alabama, but working under Pitino at Louisville and coaching stops in Virginia and North Carolina should provide him plenty of familiarity with the southeast.

He Comes at a Great Price

There's some question about how much Alabama is willing to spend on its next head coach. Anthony Grant was making about $2 million/year, but attracting an elite, proven head coach will likely cost closer to $3 million/year. Will Bill Battle be willing to spend that amount?

If not, Keatts could be a great option. UNCW gave him a five-year contract worth at least $325,000 per year, which means Alabama could more than double his salary with a modest contract of $1 million/year. Battle could easily structure the deal to provide multiple incentives for reward success and postseason play and still be paying less than they did in 2014-15.

All of this points to a coach with a bright future in the profession, but one that Alabama will most likely overlook because of his lack of experience. Just remember, the Florida Gators had only been to five NCAA Tournaments in school history before hiring an unknown, Pitino disciple in Billy Donovan in 1996. That doesn't mean Keatts is the next Donovan, but there are plenty of similarities up to this point.